Opinion: What a tangled web we weave

If you watched Saturday morning cartoons with the kids, back when cartoons were innovative, funny and thought-provoking, you are familiar with Sherman, Mr. Peabody and the way-back machine.

The fictitious way-back machine has become the internet, where nothing is ever lost.

Let’s visit the way-back machine now, and plug in, “Ukraine War, 2022.”

At the onset of the war, we were told by western experts that Russia would defeat Ukraine in a matter of days. This prediction came in spite of the fact that Ukraine had built the second largest military in Europe, that was NATO trained, NATO equipped and NATO supported. Russia, by the way, never made the claim of victory in less than a week.

When the Russian military failed to achieve the goal forecast by western experts, we were told that this was because Russia had a third-rate military that was poorly trained, poorly armed, poorly led, with terrible logistics and bad morale.

This third-rate military trope began around March 2022 and remained the dominant assessment of western experts up to and including early this month when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken maintained that while the Kremlin claimed it had the second strongest military in the world, “many saw the Russian military as the second strongest in Ukraine.”

He added, “Its equipment, technology, leadership, troops, strategy, tactics and morale [are] a case study in failure.”

Although the Ukraine government equivocates on this, their much-vaunted winter, spring, summer counter-offense began early this month. On June 9, CNN reported that Ukraine suffered “greater than expected resistance.”

Many media outlets report Ukraine experienced heavy losses in equipment and soldiers in their attempt to breach Russian lines.

Is it possible that Ukraine soldiers experienced greater resistance due to the months long propaganda campaign detailing the inadequacies of the Russian military?

Finally, in my local paper last week, in an AP article by Jamey Keaten, comes the following:

“Western analysts and military officials have cautioned that an effort to rid Ukraine of entrenched, powerfully armed and skilled Russian troops could take years.”

In 10 days, Russian troops have gone from Blinken’s “case study in failure” to Keaten’s “entrenched, powerfully armed and skilled Russian troops.”

How in the name of all that’s holy can anyone continue to pay attention to what passes for news coverage these days, without asking themselves, “What’s up with that?”

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

[email protected]